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John Tamihere was always going to be controversial getting back into Labour, and he’s already proved that.

The Cunliffe camp dominated Standard is mostly not impressed.

“JT appeals to a tremendous amount of people out there, he’s a real asset to Labour.”

“Good heavens!”
/facepalm
“It’s an insult to women and gays for the LP leadership to even consider having Tamihere stand!”
“I have had a gut full of this!”

“The labour leadership has lost the plot.”
“I am gutted once again by the blatant disregard of the memberships wants and needs”
“I hear Shearer strongly supports Tamihere. “
“Grant Robertson also spoke strongly in favour of giving Tamihere another chance.”

I agree. I await Steve (Mumbles) Hansen telling us that there was a South African waitress working at their hotel.

Further inquires will reveal that while nobody outside the NZ team (and its army of hangers on) can remember the South African waitress the team will insist that her name was Suzy and that she was the person who poisoned them.

Oh…and bereal is still crying into his beer asking why the world hates the NZ team.

I like how some people are expecting whinging and excuses but the coach, captain and all the posters not trolling so far have openly stated that England were just the better team. Maybe it’s you guys with the chip on your collective shoulders about this?

Interesting also to see opposition to Labour’s housing proposals from camp Cunliffe – they have seen that it targets middle New Zealand and effectively leaves out the poor. They view that as another sign of a move to the centre (as they see the Tamihere return).

@d_e_g No “chip” I’m just a pom, with long experience of the way NZ players and fans seem to lose all proportion and logic when it comes to England.

Still, if they can get through this without excuses, perhaps there’s hope for when they lose the next match that actually matters…I see that stuff were still re-hashing the “Lap of Honour” nonsense from 1997 pre-match.

The standard of the news media in this country is frequently in their subject of discussion on this blog. Stuff seems intent on perpetuating the commonly held view that some people should never be allowed near a keyboard.

So, it seems that the police are responsible for the death of a criminal who undertook an inherently dangerous and criminal activity in a wholly unsuitable place, entirely of his own volition and at least 12 – 24 months after any last contact with the police.

Perhaps Mr Kidd could go even further. Perhaps he should investigate who gave the deceased’s driver’s licence. Without that, he would never have got to the cave in the 1st place! Do we blame his chemistry teacher as well?

Idiot headline. Idiot story. Idiot.

The 2nd idiot headline reads “ABs loss a sour way to end the season”. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/8024747/ABs-loss-a-sour-way-to-end-the-season)
News for you, Mr Napier . The All Blacks do not have a divine right to win. They are not the greatest ever. They are not always on the verge of a perfect game. They are not head and shoulders above everyone else. They can be wonderful on their day, but then, and again, so can any other team. The Irish ran them extremely close. The Aussies ran them very close. France were only a penalty or a drop kick away from taking the World Cup. The Poms beat the living daylights out of them and made them look very ordinary. Sure they put in some wonderful performances but this does not, ever, justify putting a team on a pedestal above everyone else and throwing your toys out of the cot when they do not measure up.
There was nothing “sour” about this game. New Zealand was not up to it. England played above themselves and they won, deservedly so. I do not believe that the All Blacks are themselves as arrogant as some of our journalists who do them a great disservice. People like Napier buildup expectations that are not justified. A loss like this might help bring some journos back to earth.

Q @ A this morning had a severely flawed format, trying to fit too many topics into the discussion/debate.

Len Brown used it to promte what is happening in Auckland, Turei used it to continue her sloganeering (but she avoided talking about increasing the population instead trying to talk up her poverty meme), Winston was Whineston, Collins was ok concentrating on asking rather than stating but there wasn’t enough time to develop discussions and Dunne got Collins’ idea and ended up following suit.

There was only one topic that could be dealt with in the limited time – changing the parliamentary term to four years, with everyone agreeing. The only disagreement was on how to make the decision that seems obvious.

I don’t think a four year term should go to referendum. Many people won’t much idea about the difficulties with implementing medium term policies within a cramped term. The vote may be dominated by emotion rather than informed and sensible decisions.

There was only one topic that could be dealt with in the limited time – changing the parliamentary term to four years, with everyone agreeing. The only disagreement was on how to make the decision that seems obvious.

Which was exactly Don Braids point in his interview. (i.e. Braid of Mainfreight fame.)

A man who died from toxic fumes caused by the P-lab he had set up in a Coromandel cave would probably be alive today were it not for a police cock-up.
—————————————–
Um No. They should apportion blame to exactly where it belongs. With the person who committed the crime and his smart arse lawyer.
—————————————–
A year before his death, charges of possession of methamphetamine for supply and possession of equipment used to manufacture the Class A drug were thrown out of court.

Justice Allan granted the Sunday Star-Times access to a High Court file which shows Murphy was caught “red handed” with 1.67 kilograms of P – worth around $1.5 million – in his Morrinsville home in May, 2009.

Defence counsel argued early on that the police search was nothing but an illegitimate drug raid performed under the guise of child protection. Murphy’s lawyer, David Jones, QC,

When the admissibility argument went before Justice Allan again, he stopped short of saying officers had lied under oath but said they had “painted an incomplete picture to mislead the court”.

He had no choice but to change his original decision and rule the evidence as inadmissible.

“I regard the outcome without any satisfaction. There’s little doubt that the accused are major drug offenders.
—————————————
Justice was served in the finality.

Two things, Tari: selling your flagship policy is not our job, it’s yours. And a little more transparency about what you are spending taxpayers’ money on wouldn’t go amiss.

It was recently revealed that a quarter of applicants who received Whanau Ora cash were from Te Tai Hauauru – Turia’s electorate. It has only 8 per cent of the Maori population. Turia says she is “more than satisfied with the accountability of the spend”.

The taxpayer cannot be. If she wants us to believe in her pet policy – which undeniably has its merits – she must lead by example. Whanau Ora needs more accountability and that must start with the minister.

I thought that those were your own comments relating to Whanau Ora, V2, and silently applauded. Then I followed the link and found that they were actually comments by an opinion-writer on Stuff. But thanks for bringing it to our attention, V2.

The opinion-writer raises some interesting questions that deserve consideration. We should all be concerned about these kinds of “untouchable” deals between coalition partners – another poor quality political outcome of our MMP electoral system.

Jesus I just woke up and saw the result- Has anyone been round and checked on Bereal or Colville?

Nookin “The All Blacks do not have a divine right to win”
Seemingly they do- Tune into Radio Sport and sports websites and have a listen to the mountains of excuses coming out of the woodwork. “Food poisoning”,”The Referee cheated”, “Richie was carrying an injury” and the comically brilliant “England disrespected our haka and upset the boys”

Good item on ‘affordable housing’ in the Herald yesterday pretty much confirms how big a failure the policy is going to be for Labour when what is proposed for Auckland is too tacky for for the middle class and still too expensive for the poor.

The tell-tale comment:
“And despite the hype over Panama Rd as one of the biggest affordable housing developments in Auckland for many years, Ms Abraham and Mr Armstrong are not interested in it.

“No way,” they say, referring to privacy issues, the desire for a standalone house and a section with vegetable garden and qualms about the neighbourhood. “We might as well buy into a block of units.””

BlueGriffon, I read that and laughed.
The pair of numpties had a private deal on a street they wanted to live on then got a valuation, valuer said its worth less than the agreed price so they pulled out of deal. House then sold for asking price. So valuer fucked up their deal.

Not sure why in this day and age we have to sacrifice the lives of dogs so some drug fucked wanker can get his or her legal high.

It does not help that the prize wanker Peter Dunne is defending the testing (to administer fatal doses) on the dogs, mind you, Dunne has shown that he will agree with anything just as long as he keeps his ministerial salary.

I can’t believe that Peter Dunne is being made the scapegoat for recreational drug testing on animals, which will include (shock-horror) the risk/certainty that some test animals will die. It isn’t the Minister that is contracting to do the testing – it is the scum who want to foist these waste chemicals on our community who are submitting compounds for approval, in the hope they will make a “killing” in the market financially. I doubt if any of the testing will even be done in this country.

Funny how no-one seemed to care when they were being tested on vulnerable adolescents – except for the medical professionals who were faced with the consequences. In fact it seemed that people like wannabe rockstars were idolised and rewarded for their profits.

Would it not be easer to legalise pot?
The testing has already been done the lethal dose 50 is way higher than alcohol as a proportion of the effective intoxication dose.
I would be interested to know what the safe level will be compared to.

Easy, wise, and politically expedient are concepts that are not even within shouting distance of each other.

As well as the fairly obvious recreational use, there are industrial and medicinal uses. There are some pretty remarkable claims being made about juicing he plant and drinking the liquid as a remedy for “incuables” like cancer.

Alcohol is the principle that gives to ardent spirit and wine their intoxicating power; while the narcotic principle to opium and tobacco imparts similar properties. In popular language, alcohol is classed among the stimulants; and opium and tobacco among the narcotics; which are substances whose ultimate effect upon the animal system is to produce torpor and insensibility; but taken in small quantities they at first exhilarate. And since alcohol does the same, most medical writers, at the present day, class it among the narcotics.

— Edward Hitchcock, American Temperance Society (1830)

Pot is not a narcotic, it is a hallucinogenic.
The lethal dose of alcohol is around four times the drunk driving limit. Deaths regularly occur from alcohol poising.
For pot its very high well past the state of being capable of imbibing any more. Death from pot is very rare.

Still reality is not your strong point is it kowtow.: The bible say god made the herbs of the field for man to use.

I suggested he should bring some balance to his show;
It would be worth a few seconds of your time to read the brief “open letter” sent to the UN Secretary General on 29/11/2012 by 125 scientists from around the world.

There’s not much chance of a rational approach being applied to drug policy in NZ any time soon…

Indeed. A rational approach would first require a rational discussion and a rational discussion requires prominent public figures to put their reputation on the line with the risk that their very serious proposals will be reduced to comedic fodder e.g. Don Brash.

Incidentally, based on etymology cannabis could well have been one of the plants used in the Hebrew annointing oil. The hebrew name was qana beshem, where the em is the Hebrew plural suffix, which suggests that a combination of both cannabis sativa and cannabis indica were used.

Oh, and Syun-Ichi Akasofu, one of the experts interviewed in the crank film ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’. Also Piers Corbyn, participant in same film. Looks like the signatories are the usual bunch of fraudsters. Some of them are also creation ‘scientists’.

Legalise all drugs for all I care. Just don’t ask the tax payer to pay once cent toward the rehabilitation costs when the drug fucked wrecks decide they want to come clean.

Junkies can sleep and die in the gutter for all care, all of them (save the really unfortunate Aaron Cohen types) make a choice to put that shit into their system therefore it is not our problem if the suffer the consequences of their lifestyle choices.

If we must test new medical drugs before public use then how about we test them on pedophiles and murderes.

Legalise all drugs for all I care. Just don’t ask the tax payer to pay once cent toward the rehabilitation costs when the drug fucked wrecks decide they want to come clean.

Except that you WILL pay not just one cent but many millions of dollars regardless of whether you provide rehabilitation services or not. No man is an island and almost no one, who self-destructs from drug addiction, leaves everyone else untouched.

In my view, you either pay for rehabilitation now or you pay for prisons later on down the track (along with the cost to the victims who may be hurt along the way).

Legalization shouldn’t mean a total lack of regulation and control in whatever manner may best reduce the associated harm that is unique to the particular drug in question.

So you support the idea of letting people fuck up with no consequences.

I do not see how that follows from what I have said. I’ve simply told you what will happen. How you wish to deal with it is up to you.

No worries, the good old tax payer can pick up the bill for the rehab costs.

… or the prison costs.

At what stage do you suggest that we start telling low life that we are sick of paying for their mistakes?

Addiction is a sickness. Trying to rationalize with such people is pointless until the sickness is addressed. My view is that the system should be designed to minimize harm. The war on drugs has been shown as a failure and ultimately counter-productive. But that doesn’t change the fact that drug addiction is harmful and complete deregulation isn’t a viable answer.

There is a social cost to drug abuse and that will be paid one way or the other.

Apparently a Congressional committee is demanding the TSA wind its head in:

With a powerful congressional committee like this lining up behind sweeping TSA reform, it is not a question of if, but when Congress — which by the way, does sign the TSA’s checks — acts to dismantle this $8-billion-a-year security boondoggle…

…Charles Edwards, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting inspector general, described the TSA as bureaucratic and dysfunctional…

…One by one, panelists took turns excoriating the agency charged with protecting America’s transportation systems. It was plainly clear why Pistole was a no-show, and it had nothing to do with jurisdiction; it would have been an openly hostile crowd….

TSA Administrator John Pistole refused to testify before the committee on the innocuous subject of “common sense” improvements to America’s airport security, reportedly because the committee has no jurisdiction over his agency.

But see it’s not dead and it won’t be. Pistole’s comment about no jurisdiction to the Committee that authorises its funding is exactly what the Gestapo would have said in say 1937, as it was getting established into the German infrastructure. You look at the sort of people they hire in the TSA. Petty, bureaucratic, officious. Put a uniform onto an American and they change and you take the worst of those and you have the perfect TSA inspector.

They don’t need to grope babies and old ladies to “protect us.” They’re teaching the entire US air-travelling public that they can be intimately violated on a random basis no matter who they are. (Unless they’re politicians or important people or travel on private jets, that’s different.)

That’s what they are doing, and that is why they are doing it. The Nazis discovered that public nudity was a useful way to subjugate and control people in the camps, that’s why you see lots of photos of that. What the TSA are doing today is a very very toned down but nevertheless equally sinister version of that same technique. Why are they doing that, is a question people should think about.

I read that too. Of course there is silence here because it gets in the way of peoples prejudices and anti-teacher, anti-union bashing.
No mention from the government either because they have to promote thinking from the public that the education system is a mess in order to justify dismantling it. Unfortunately for them the public is not buying it.

Speaking of silence and education, has anyone else noticed that there has been no sign of Hekia for ages? Where the heck is Hekia!! No mention from Hekia about the Novopay mess that has been going on for over two months for example.

I’m thinking the National party strategy is to hide her away for the good of the poll ratings.

This is precisely what happened in Germany pre WWII with Hitler in power. A Brit married to a German explained she didn’t notice it, unless and until it hit her. She gave the example of her Jewish doctor, who had just spent the night with her very sick child and in the morning, he turned and asked her whether she still wanted him to be her family doctor. And of course she just said “Of course, why ever not’ and then he explained his pediatric clinic in Munich had been closed down and he’d been warned not to treat any Aryan children.

This is how it happens.

I didn’t give the above that the scales would drop from your eyes, I gave it so you could file it away, and observe progress.

but the Shearer lifts will make for some interesting discussions. It will make BBQ chat over the summer a hard task for Cunliffe.

Nah, the Shearer lift was only to be expected with his ‘manly’ handling of Cunliffe (along with his face in the papers for a week or so – the television coverage wouldn’t have umm, ahh, helped, ur, much.)

I understand the TV3 poll has National higher.

These polls show two things:

– a natural bounce from Shearer manning up
– the left exchanging their vote between them (I think you’ll fund TV3 have NZ First lower) while National stays pretty much the same

There will be another poll for Shearer before the leadership test in Feb. The summer BBQs will be more about forecasting that poll than this one.

Look at National and it’s support for so called marriage equality.Support for Treaty,ETS, failure to roll back the smacking nonsense,support for anti tobacco measures,all Nanny stuff.
What’s the point of a conservative government that’s not conservative?

Right now we have a caretaker govt barely distinguishable from the last.Even Helen didn’t want to push the social agenda too far.

Yeah I know the homo marriage thing is a pri members bill,but that’s not the point. So many Nats are in behind.

Which reinforces the point I made before about the Left exchanging votes (Nats remain pretty much on their 2011 election result.)

A coalition partner(s) is important. UF would still go with Nats (assuming Dunne is still there.) Maori Party would negotiate with Nats as they would still be, by far, the party with the largest votes. What happens to ACT (or a rebranded ACT) is important.

TV3 Sport are now breathlessly reporting that up to half of the All Blacks were still suffering from food poisoning/illness during last nights hammering from England.

Strangely pre-game the commentary team told us that the All Blacks had suffered some minor illness during the week but were all now “100% and raring to go!” Watch the replay of that disgraceful throat slitting haka- Nisbett and Marshall can hardly contain their excitement about the thrashing their invincible Adi-Blacks are about to dish out to hapless England.
Surely someone that close to the camp would have known had the team been hobbled by ‘illness’?

Now I wouldn’t dare suggest for one minute that our beloved All Blacks would make an excuse after having their arses handed to them …

Wait till Steve Tew’s spin doctors get to work this week Mikey- We simply can’t have an All Black loss without some sort of conspiracy or refereeing outrage now can we? (A loss without such an excuse would suggest our invincible heroes are mere mortals and that would not please the sponsors!)

They will never have my support until that stops. They are arrogant thugs and are nothing to aspire to. They represent all that is wrong in NZ society.

The whole Maori warrior thing ignores reality. The fact is that the Maori “warriors” only fought among themselves. The English fought battles all over the planet and built a global empire. They are proven as far greater warriors, as have many other cultures. Raiding the local village to nick some Kumara and girls, does not cut it people.

We simply can’t have an All Black loss without some sort of conspiracy or refereeing outrage now can we? (A loss without such an excuse would suggest our invincible heroes are mere mortals and that would not please the sponsors!)

Steve Hansen was quite clear in the press conference, no excuses, England were the better team. Quite obvious really.

Queen Elizabeth
And Dolly Parton
Die on the same day and they both go to heaven.
They stand before an Angel to find out if they’ll be admitted.
Unfortunately, there’s only one space left that day,
So the Angel must decide which of them gets in.
The Angel asks Dolly if there’s some particular
Reason why she should go to Heaven.
Dolly takes off her top and says, ‘Look at these,
They’re the most perfect breasts God ever created,
And I’m sure it will please God to be able to see
Them every day, for eternity.’
The Angel thanks Dolly, and asks Her Majesty
The same question.
The Queen takes a bottle of Perrier out of her purse, drinks it down.
Then, wees into a toilet and pulls the lever.

The Angel says, ‘OK, your Majesty, you may go in.’

Dolly is outraged and asks, ‘What was that all about?
I show you two of God’s own perfect creations and
You turn me down. She wees into a toilet and she gets in!
Would you explain that to me?’
‘Sorry, Dolly,’ says the Angel, ‘but even in Heaven,

While conducting some business at the Courthouse, I overheard a
lady, who had been arrested for assaulting a Mammogram Technician, say,
“Your Honor, I’m guilty but…..there were extenuating circumstances.”

The female Judge said, sarcastically, “I’d certainly like to hear
those extenuating circumstances.” I did too so… I listened as the
lady told her story….

“Your Honor, I had a mammogram appointment, which I actually kept. I
was met by this perky little clipboard carrier smiling from ear to ear and
she tilted her head to one side and crooned, “Hi! I’m Belinda! All I need
you to do is step into this room right here, strip to the waist, then slip
on this gown. Everything clear?”

With the right side finished, Belinda flipped me (literally) to the
left and said, “Hmmmm. Can you stand on your tippy toes and lean in a tad so
we can get everything?” Fine, I answered.

I was freezing, bruised, and out of air, so why not use the
remaining circulation in my legs and neck to finish me off? My body was in a
holding pattern that defied gravity (with my other breast wedged between
those two 4 inch pieces of square glass) when I heard and felt a zap!

Complete darkness, the power was off!

Belinda said, “Uh-oh, maintenance is working, bet they hit a snag.”
Then she headed for the door.

“Excuse me! You’re not leaving me in this vise alone are you?” I
shouted.

Belinda kept going and said, “Oh, you fussy puppy…the door’s wide
open so you’ll have the emergency hall lights. I’ll be right back.”

Before I could shout NOOOO! She disappeared. And that’s exactly how
Bubba and Earl, “maintenance men Extraordinaire” found me…half-naked with
part of me dangling from the Jaws of Life and the other part smashed between
glass!

After exchanging a polite Hi, how’s it going type greeting, Bubba
(or possibly Earl) asked, to my utter disbelief, if I knew the power was
off.

Trying to disguise my hysteria, I replied with as much calmness as
possible, “Uh, yes, I did but thanks anyway.”

“OK, you take care now” Bubba replied and waved good-bye as though
I’d been standing in the line at the grocery store.

Two hours later, Belinda breezes in wearing a sheepish grin.
Making no attempt to suppress her amusement, she said, “Oh, I am
sooo sorry!
The power came back on and I totally forgot about you! And silly me,
I went to lunch. Are we upset?”

And that, Your Honor, is exactly how her head ended up between the
clamps….”

The judge could hardly contain her laughter as she said “Case
Dismissed”.

Kea and RF- Amusing that only one week after they reconfirm themselves as the arrogant thugs of World Rugby through the cowardly attack by Andrew Hore (followed by the smug justification by Steve Hansen), the All Blacks back this up with the throat slitting gesture at the English (Which, according to our drooling commentators, is apparently only saved for teams they really hate!)

I grew up loving the All Blacks, but this current mob are arrogant cheating arseholes. “Swing Low Sweet Chariot!”

I grew up loving the All Blacks, but this current mob are arrogant cheating arseholes.

Oh dear Longknives, beryl will be knocking back a few and at the same time tracking down your ISP because obviously you hate your country matey, its just so apparent, you’ve criticized the All Blacks, you , you country hater you- how the hell do you sleep at night saying things like that about the All Blacks?